Taobao Field Guide » upgrades

Oh Crap, a New Button!

The Field Guide — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:56:17 +0000

The paint’s not even dry on our Field Guides and Taobao has gone and added a new button to their system. Fan-freekin-tastic!

Well, don’t worry. The existing buying guide procedure still works just fine. This button just provides another way to shop, with shopping-cart style functions. This is going to make it easier if you buy multiple products from one Seller. Now you will be able to choose to ship them together more easily, and maybe even choose some special promotional discounts.

Details to follow – Excelsior!

Update New guide is up: Buy Multiple Products with the Shopping Cart

Taobao Adds Attitude, Speed, Accuracy Ratings

The Field Guide — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 06:55:03 +0000

Last night’s upgrade has been revealed. Besides some graphical detailing and URL structural changes, Taobao has added some new dimensions to the Seller feedback system. The previous system judged Sellers with overall satisfaction ratings on a good-neutral-bad scale. Buyers could also provide a written message about their experience with the Seller.

Now Taobao has added a five-star scale for rating three criteria: Seller Attitude, Delivery Speed and their Accuracy in describing the product. These are things that were commonly mentioned in the buyers’ written messages, but it is good to see this quantified and aggregated for easier evaluation. As buyers start to use the new system and the ratings start coming in, we will write a Field Guide on it.

Seven Hours of Website Maintenance?

The Field Guide — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:25:21 +0000

Attention midnight shoppers. Taobao will be offline while they run a system upgrade on 2/15, Sunday morning from 1AM to 8AM. That’s a pretty long time for a big website like Taobao to be out of commission. But I can’t wait to see what kind of updates they have planned. Should be good, so stay tuned.